Thursday, December 28, 2017

Eric Garner was killed on video by NYPD officers in 2014. His last words as he was being choked to death were, "I can't breath." A grand jury refused to indict the officer and the Obama department of justice declined to prosecute, although they had jurisdiction and could have prosecuted the killer cop in this or any other case.

His daughter and namesake Erica Garner became the champion of his case. In 2016 she was invited to a presidential town hall broadcast by ABC. It was held on the second anniversary of her father's murder but she was not allowed to ask a question. She felt used and she said so. Eventually she was able to speak to the president.

On Christmas Eve the 27-year old Ms. Garner suffered a heart attack and today she was declared brain dead with no chance of recovery. She was also the mother of an 8-year old and a 4-month old baby. According to her mother Ms. Garner was diagnosed with an enlarged heart during her recent pregnancy and suffered a previous heart attack after the birth.

This family's plight tells us so much about how black people are treated in this country. Police murder and poor health care. Now two motherless children.

But I return to Barack Obama. In eight years his justice department only prosecuted two cops. He only spoke to Ms. Garner because she protested at the 2016 town hall. His response to her can only be described thusly. "I'm sorry for your loss. Fuck you."

I forgot to post a discussion I had with Don DeBar a few weeks ago. We talked about a Black Agenda Report column I wrote back in November, Contradictions of White Supremacy. I was inspired after the New York Times publication of a controversial interview with an Ohio Nazi. The brouhaha was predictable and necessary but there are aspects of white supremacy which can't be hidden because of outrage generated by the existence of overt racists. Millions of people are racists or benefit from racism yet clutch their pearls because of a guy who owns Nazi memorabilia. They should not have a get out of jail free card.
You can listen to us here.

Monday, November 20, 2017

I was invited to appear on the program Earthwise, which is broadcast from Christ Church, New Zealand. Lois and Martin Griffiths read my Black Agenda Report column AFRICOM is the Question and asked if I would join them. We touched on many other issues too, such as Black Lives Matter, which is known world wide. Listening to our conversation is a good use of 20 minutes. Enjoy. Just click on this link.

Sunday, November 19, 2017

Another great conversation with Craig Gordon of The Now Age Press. We talked about politics and the need for and the needs of independent media. Craig was kind enough to show you how to donate to Black Agenda Report too. Put something in the Now Age Press tip jar while you're at it.

As usual we covered many topics, including the election, inequality, the levels of indoctrination among the American public, political propaganda, and celebrity worship too. A great use of 45 minutes. You won't be sorry.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

That is the title of my latest Black Agenda Report column. The back and forth about what Donald Trump said to Sgt. La David Johnson's widow should not be the central issue. Congresswoman Frederica Wilson and the rest of the Congressional Black Caucus have an opportunity to raise the issue of U.S. imperialism directed against African countries. But as I have pointed out they are among the worst democratic party hacks. We'll get no useful information or leadership from them.

Friday, October 20, 2017

The Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases will hold a conference in Baltimore, Maryland January 12 - 14, 2018. You can see registration and other event information here. I'll have more to say as the event approaches. And I will be among the speakers.

Sunday, October 01, 2017

I appeared on Presstv to discuss the March for Racial Justice which was held in Washington DC. Unfortunately my remarks were edited, a lot. I only spoke for about 3 minutes and they only used a snippet. Oh well.

There was controversy about the march taking place on Yom Kippur but organizers chose the date of September 30 for a very good reason. On September 30, 1919 a massacre of black farmers took place in Elaine, Arkansas. An estimated 100 to 200 people were killed after they attempted to protest against the sharecropper system by forming a union.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

I always had a great deal of respect for Julian Assange. His work at Wikileaks exposes what powerful forces want to keep hidden and that makes it inherently valuable to the world.

He always said he would face rape charges in Sweden if that government would promise not to turn him over to the United States. Even after those charges were dropped the U.K. and the U.S. are still intent on punishing him and his lock down in the Ecuadorean embassy in London continues. This is a great injustice to Assange and a warning to anyone who intends to expose criminal wrong doing committed by states around the world.

But lately Assange has made some highly questionable statements. Perhaps the imprisonment has taken its toll or maybe revealed what was already there. Perhaps he always was a misogynistic racist who parrots white supremacist talking points.

These are just two recent tweets from Assange. In the first he sounds like an old school fascist. White women must eschew feminism, go to church and make babies in order to keep the migration of brown people at bay. Oh yes, and white leaders must make babies too. Cuz brown people.

As if this wasn't vile enough Assange chose to wade into the murky waters of American history.

Warfare was the only way to end slavery in this country. The confederacy struck first at Fort Sumter. They actually began seceding immediately after Lincoln was elected. Lincoln was not anti-slavery and his dream was to send black people out of the country. But the south gambled on war because even Lincoln's limited goal of stopping the spread of slavery was too much for them. They refused any offer to be compensated for their enslaved property. They refused to accept keeping slavery where it already existed. So yes, the military defeat of the confederacy was the only way to end slavery.

I'm always suspicious of white people who make this argument. Not only is their understanding of history suspect, but they are also admitting that they don't think slavery was such a bad thing.

I know black people who never trust white people of any political stripe. Assange certainly makes the case for that point of view.

Monday, September 18, 2017

In general I have ignored the questions about punching Nazis. But if you are walking around with a Nazi armband a beat down is well deserved. I have seen many stories about this incident which took place in Seattle. The Root has the best and funniest report.Unfortunately the video is no longer available but the photo is worth 1,000 words.

Saturday, September 09, 2017

My column in this week's Black Agenda Report is entitled "Assad is Winning." The recent Syrian Arab Army victory in Deir Ezzor was just the latest indicator that the United States backed jihadists are on the run and that is very good news indeed. The people of Deir Ezzor certainly think so as they celebrate their government's victory.

Why are there suddenly stories about rapes committed in Syrian jails? Because Assad is winning. Why does the United Nations say that the Syrian government committed chemical weapons attacks? Because Assad is winning. And why does the Intercept suddenly claim that president Assad is beloved by American white nationalists? Because Assad is winning.

The story of sexual assault bears further inspection. It strikes me as being similar to tales of Iraqi soldiers tossing Kuwaiti babies out of incubators or Gaddafi giving his soldiers viagra. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, one man living in the U.K., is a part of this story as are others among the usual suspects supportive of U.S. backed regime change.

As for the Intercept, the story is is particularly disappointing. Essentially a couple of American crackers said they like Assad and presto! We have proof that the Syrian government is a hotbed of redneckdom. Moon of Alabama discusses mistranslation of an Assad speech which is used to bolster an anti-Syrian screed.

It is quite shameful that even those allegedly on the left support American imperialism. The regime change plot failed but the U.S. won't give up easily. So sad that there are willing helpers to a crime committed against an entire nation. But don't be surprised. This sorry spectacle won't end anytime soon.

A travel delay prevented me from speaking on one of the Saturday morning panels, The Many Faces of War Militarism and Neo-Fascism. My remarks addressed the plight of people of color in the United States and made the case that there is nothing "neo" about American fascism and that Donald Trump is no aberration. He provides more continuity than most people want to admit. I'm the first speaker on the video below but please listen to the rest of the panelists too. They were kind enough to make room for me on their panel Geography of Struggle - Wars of Aggression and Peoples' Struggles. They discussed Egypt, the Korean peninsula, Palestine, Europe, the state of the U.S. anti-war movement and the local struggle in Toronto. Enjoy and learn.

I was also a participant in the workshop, The Role of the Media in Movement-Building. I'll post video when it is available.

The conference brought people together from all over the world who are struggling and working on a wide variety of issues. You can see posts, photos and video on the event Facebook page here. All the information is well worth your time.

The capitalists and imperialists want us to be isolated and to feel alone. That is why it is so vital to join with comrades and friends from around the world. We experience our power every time we work together in this way.

Sunday, July 30, 2017

"A New York Times reporter [Kurt Eichenwald] not only gave money to a child pornographer, but did business with him and even signed on to an illegal porn website as a member and administrator, documents unsealed yesterday in a federal criminal proceeding in Nashville reveal. He claims in one court document, he only 'posed' as a pedophile." Counterpunch 2007

Just when I begin to think that my web surfing and social media usage are time sucking addictions, I sometimes find out something very useful from these activities. Hence the addiction. Bear with me as I weave a tale of privilege and how white people can get away with doing terrible things without risk to their lives or careers.

First, let's observe how black people are treated when they do things they should not. Janet Cooke was a Washington Post reporter who fabricated a story about a child drug addict in 1981. Unfortunately for Cooke, the story won a Pulitzer prize. She was fired and never worked as a journalist again. Jayson Blair was a New York Times reporter. He fabricated stories and was fired in 2003. He has not worked as a journalist since that time. As I said, Cooke and Blair are both black.

Kurt Eichenwald was a New York Times reporter. In 2007 it was discovered that he administered a child porn website and paid an 18-year old who appeared on that site $2,000. Debbie Nathan reported the story in Counterpunch 2007. But others like New York Magazine excused Eichenwald and repeated his claim of wanting to save a child from the porn industry.

Eichenwald was forced to leave the Times but he went on to Newsweek and to Vanity Fair. He has also been a contributor to MSNBC. The child sex scandal was a bump in an otherwise successful career.

In 2016 Eichenwald libeled Bill Moran, then a reporter at Sputnik News. Moran was reporting on the DNC email hack and mistakenly attributed an Eichenwald quote to Clinton ally Sidney Blumenthal. He realized his mistake within 20 minutes and deleted his post. But in the fast world of the internet it was still too late. Donald Trump quoted the incorrect information at a rally that very day. Eichenwald and Newsweek claimed that Moran's error proved a link between Trump and the Kremlin. Eichenwald retweeted what Moran himself admitted was a mistake more than 37 times. Newsweek and Eichenwald continued to use Moran's mistake as proof of a Trump/Kremlin connection even though they knew the story was reported as false almost immediately.

Moran lost his job at Sputnik. In a series of emails Eichenwald threatened Moran if he went public but sweetened the deal with an offer to help him find another gig. As I said, the child sex scandal didn't hurt Eichenwald. He still had connections to offer up.

Unfortunately for Eichenwald, Moran is also an attorney. He represented himself in court and succeeded in getting a settlement from Newsweek.

I also discovered that Eichenwald's porn interest continues. He took a photo of his computer which showed he had accessed something called tentacle porn. I have no idea what that is. I don't want to know. Don't tell me what it is. It isn't my business but Eichenwald revealed it himself and then used his wife and kids as his excuse. For real.

So what does any of this have to do with white privilege? I started out by saying that Cooke and Blair never worked again. Ever. Eichenwald administered a child porn site and kept working as a journalist. Newsweek knew he lied in libeling another journalist and assisted him in telling what they all knew to be a lie.

It appears that Eichenwald is no longer at Newsweek. He doesn't mention it on his twitter profile. He still lists himself as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair however.

So I'll just cut to the chase. White people can get away with a lot and never pay a price. Eichenwald has apparently departed Newsweek but I'm guessing he didn't leave empty handed.

Eichenwald had powerful defenders and friends who helped him keep working whether he paid for child porn or libeled a fellow journalist. Cooke and Blair can't get arrested all these years after their mistakes.

Tuesday, July 04, 2017

Stanislav Lisov is a Russian citizen who was arrested in Barcelona, Spain earlier this year. But the arrest warrant did not come from Spanish authorities. He was wanted by the United States. American prosecutors are going to great lengths to capture Russians charged with cyber crimes. Lisov is among those accused of running multi million dollar bank, credit card and identity theft schemes.

Roman Seleznev is another unlucky Russian who fell into the hands of the American prosecutors. In 2014 he was visiting the Maldives, an Indian ocean nation with no extradition treaty with the United States. But officials there cooperated with Americans and snatched him from the airport before he could enter that country. He was sent to San Francisco to face charges, was convicted and recently sentenced to 27 years in prison.

There is a long list of Russians who have been arrested by the United States if they leave their country. They have been captured and transported to the United States from the Maldives, Finland, Thailand, Czech Republic, Norway and now Spain, which recently granted the U.S. its request to extradite Lisov.

It is very suspicious that at the moment when the United States is most hostile to Russia that its citizens accused of theft would be treated so harshly and with such determination. The Unites States has the biggest prison system in the world, with more than two million people incarcerated. It is known for its draconian sentences, prosecutorial misconduct and a system weighted heavily against defendants.

If these cases are worthy of prosecutions a country other than the United States should carry them out. America's motives should always be suspect, particularly now that Russia is accused of interfering in the recent presidential election. That nation and its president, Vladimir Putin, have been demonized to an extent not seen in recent history. It is difficult to believe that suddenly individuals accused of even large scale theft would suddenly be pursued with such ferocity.

American bankers committed vast crimes when they created the 2008 financial collapse. But they went unpunished. Why is it now so important to catch Russians accused of crime? The answer is obviously political. These people are being used to punish their nation because it refuses to be subordinate to the United States, which continues its provocations against the Russian government.

Associates of Bill Clinton admitted to interfering in Russia's elections in favor of Boris Yeltsin in 1996. Since that time the United States has expanded NATO, unilaterally withdrawn from a missile defense treaty, instigated a coup in Ukraine and attacked Syria, a Russian ally. It is difficult to believe that there is no political motivation for these arrests.

Unfortunately the propaganda has been successful. Russians are assumed to be evil and guilty and there are few Americans knowledgeable enough to call attention to these questionable prosecutions. If the United States had not declared their nation an enemy the crimes they are accused of committing would be ignored. At the very least another solution would have been worked out at high diplomatic levels. But Lisov and others are pawns in a political struggle.

These prosecutions are highly politicized and of dubious value. Given the nature of the U.S. criminal justice system and the level of hostility between the two nations, these prosecutions should be stopped and these individuals should be returned to their country.

Saturday, July 01, 2017

This is a blast from the past which I recently had recent to recall. I had an amazing experience in April of 2014. I was invited to join a powerful group of black thinkers at a symposium entitled Black Folks in Dark Times. It was held at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. I was joined by conveners Peter James Hudson and Jemima Pierre along with Glen Ford, David Austin, Kevin Edmonds, Sokari Ekine, Kevin Alexander Gray, Aaron Kamugisha, Emira Woods, Maboula Soumahoro, Naomi Reed, Christina Sharpe, Rinaldo Walcott and Johnny Eric Williams.

Unfortunately there were technical problems which prevented all remarks from being recorded. But there is audio for comments from Kevin Alexander Gray, Christina Sharpe and Maboulah Soumaroo. Listen here beginning at about 19 minutes. You can also get a good idea of what took place on this storify link courtesy of Peter Hudson.

Thursday, June 29, 2017

I now think that the title of my latest Black Agenda Report column is somewhat unfair. One cannot blame Nancy Pelosi for all of the democratic party's problems. She has had lots of help in bringing the democrats to their lowest point in recent history. But she is a fair target. Whenever anyone asks why she remains that party's house leader despite her failures we are told that she raises lots of money. That is true. But it doesn't seem to help them win. In fact I believe that the money is itself a problem. The 1% aren't going to vote themselves out of existence and that is exactly what the people want. Read my column here and listen to my discussion with Don DeBar here.

During our talk Ray mentioned a forthcoming article from investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Hersh was once published in the New York Times and in the New Yorker but that was some years ago. He then went to the London Review of Books but apparently now they reject him too. The German newspaper Die Welt published his reporting on the Syria chemical weapons story today.

No need to wait for a punchline. We were lied to by the Trump administration and by the corporate media. Their actions were very dangerous and risked war between the U.S. and Russia. Please read Seymour Hersh's story here and McGovern's analysis here.

I moderated a panel on this subject with Ray McGovern and Mark Crispin Miller on June 15, 2017. We discussed media/elite collusion, propaganda, stolen elections and why Obama was more effectively evil than Trump. We had an engaged audience at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church. Event was sponsored by the Big Apple Coffee Party.

Hillary Clinton spends $1 billion and ends up the loser but somehow the left is to blame. But of course the democratic party wants to end up on the right anyway so that twisted logic isn't surprising. That was the theme of my column in this week's Black Agenda Report and the topic of discussion with Don DeBar on CPR News.

A few weeks ago I talked to Doug Lain on his Zero Squared podcast. I always laugh a lot during our conversations, even as I discuss serious matters. I guess Doug brings that out in me. Anyway we did have a fun but serious conversation. Enjoy.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 Paris climate agreement. Bad news but so is the agreement, which gives rich nations cover as they continue warming the globe. There is a lot less here than meets the eye as I said in my Black Agenda Report column and in conversation with Don DeBar on CPR News.

Monday, June 05, 2017

I love this video. Why? Because it starts before we were ready and you see the Black Agenda Report team acting very human. LOL. Plus good words from Nellie Bailey, Danny Haiphong, Glen Ford, Dahoud Andre, Ajamu Baraka, Bruce Dixon and poet Raymond Turner. I love our Left Forum panels.

Sunday, June 04, 2017

Trump's foreign policy in Saudi Arabia is no different from Obama's. Yet the corporate media hope that you won't notice that or other elements of continuity. "Obama vs. Trump" is my latest Black Agenda Report column. As always I discussed it with Don DeBar on CPR News.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

We have surely fallen down into the rabbit hole. What was satire a few months ago now passes for serious news coverage. Such is the state of affairs as propaganda goes into overdrive. Endless Propaganda is the subject of my latest Black Agenda Report column and topic of my weekly conversation with Don DeBar.

I had a great conversation with Eleanor Goldfield about a variety of issues. We concluded that there is a lot less confusion (debates about white allies, political correctness, democratic party deceptions, black misleadership class) when we adhere to left wing principles. So simple. A good use of 21 minutes of your time.

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

I'm very exciting about moderating this panel. Ed Schultz, Ray McGovern and Mark Crispin Miller will discuss the hot topic of fake news. The event is free but contributions are welcome. If you are in New York City on June 15th please attend. It should be an interesting evening.

Friday, May 19, 2017

The sorry spectacle goes on and on. Progressives are attacking Trump from the right when they defend the FBI and the other intelligence agencies that are in the business of crushing human rights. That is their reason for being after all. James Comey denied the existence of mass incarceration but so-called leftists get their pants in a twist because he is now out of work.

Thursday, May 11, 2017

Getting votes into rocket science. Political parties win if they give people what they want. Simple. Better wages, education and health care as rights, an end to the incarceration state. But if democrats campaign on these issues they will fall out of favor with their corporate patrons. So they don't give people what they want and as a result they are wiped out at every level of government across the country.

Friday, May 05, 2017

"We need to come together in an action-oriented conference where we can meet each other, learn from each other, support each other, strategize together and leave with a coherent plan for united, effective action."

The United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) conference will be held in Richmond, Virginia on June 16 through 18. I serve on UNAC's Administrative Committee and I can proudly say that we did not fold our tents the way others did when Obama neutralized so many progressives and would be leftists.

Check out the conference website. I'll be there of course along with Glen Ford, Ajamu Baraka, Kevin Zeese, David Swanson, Ann Wright, Jaribu Hill, Lawrence Hamm, Medea Benjamin and the entire UNAC team of activists from around the world.

Thursday, May 04, 2017

Obama will get paid. $400,000 to be exact. The patron of this particular largesse is investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald. Of course it won't be the last time the capitalist's factotum will be compensated. You can't build presidential libraries with hope and change. Speaking of change, $400k is chump change compared to what Obama will be paid in the future.

The announcement of the big payday sent naive Obamabots into a collective tizzy. Wasn't Obama supposed to be different? Well he isn't different and that is pretty obvious to anyone who was really paying attention. In 2008 he raised more money from wall street than any previous presidential candidate in history. And he didn't forget who the bosses are because the crooked banksters were bailed out and none of them went to jail.

Should we be upset? Yes. We should be upset that our system is so corrupt and that we live under billionaire rule. I explained in my Black Agenda Report column this week and discussed it with Don DeBar. You can read the column here and listen to Don and I here.

Two days ago I had another great conversation with Craig Gordon of Now Age Press. We talked about "binary social conditioning, and how the dynamic is undermining American society.

Binary social conditioning? You know how it works. Republicans are evil, true, but binary thinking concludes that democrats are not evil and cannot be questioned. That part is not true and exemplifies what is wrong with politics. Paradoxically it also explains why the democrats are wiped out across the country.

Listening to our talk will be the best use of 36 minutes that you'll have all week. For real.

Monday, May 01, 2017

I have written a lot about this subject. Russia is the last bastion of opposition to American plans for global hegemony. That country has been used as a scapegoat to cover up the debacle which led to Hillary Clinton losing to Donald Trump and to prevent democrats from turning against their inept and corrupt party leadership. I wrote this and more in an email interview with Daniel Falcone. It appeared in Atlanta Blackstar. You can read all about it here.

Friday, April 28, 2017

There are many shameful things about this country but hypocrisy about its history is one of the worst. According to one researcher the United States intervened in elections around the world at least 80 times between 1946 and 2000. If the Russian government did interfere in the 2016 elections it is certainly no worse than than this country.

Monday, April 24, 2017

Such is the legacy of our first black president. Libya helped African migrants earn a living, but that was before Muammar Gaddafi ended up in Obama and Clinton cross hairs. Now these same people are being enslaved by the jihadists the United States, NATO and gulf monarch Arab states brought to power. Read my Black Agenda Report column here and listen to my weekly conversation with Don DeBar here. Don and I didn't just discuss Libya. Our conversation veered off a bit and we talked about other issues regarding U.S. policy in Africa. Sometimes digression is a good thing.

Friday, April 14, 2017

In retrospect I see that it was inevitable. Whatever Trump meant by changing a relationship with Russia could not withstand the imperatives of the military industrial complex, the neocons, the deep state and the war party. The war party is an integral part of the duopoly and led by the likes of Hillary Clinton has become a requirement for accepted discourse in the democratic party.

Sunday, April 09, 2017

Yesterday I was fortunate to speak with Radio Sputnik. I was invited as a member of the Hands Off Syria Coalition coordinating committee. Unfortunately my references to HOSC were edited out but I think the 5 minute long interview sums up my feelings about Syria pretty well.

I don't know if Trump was ever serious about having a different relationship with Russia and eschewing regime change plots. Even if he was, the continuing charges of Russian influence, the congressional hearings and threats of impeachment have had the desired impact. Less than one week after saying that regime change was not a goal in Syria his administration now picks up the Obama mantra "Assad must go." He did not eschew American intervention altogether. The plan was to partition Syria into zones of influence and continue the practice of destroying secular Arab regimes by other means.

Now the U.S. is in direct conflict with Russia. And we are living in very dangerous times.

I'm going to admit I had no idea who was mayor of Baltimore, Maryland. I found out last week but not for a good reason. Catherine Pugh is the mayor and I learned her name after she vetoed a bill that would have raised the minimum wage in that city. It is currently $8.75 per hour and the city council voted to raise it to $15.00 over a five year period.

She did so by parroting a favorite republican talking point which claims that raising the minimum wage will increase unemployment. There is no proof of this. She also pleaded poverty, that is to say that paying municipal workers more money would increase the budget deficit. But Baltimore gives tax breaks to big business and that certainly takes money out of the treasury. She said nothing about changing that drain on public funds.

I could go on, but Pugh is just one of the black misleaders, the people who use the rest of us to become errand boys and girls for the democratic party. They get elected office and other high positions and do absolutely nothing that benefits the masses of black people. They lead us to poverty and to political confusion and we must fight them before we fight anyone else.

You can read my analysis in Black Agenda Report and listen to my weekly interview with Don DeBar. By the way, Pugh's act was so awful that BAR had to do a double beat down. Danny Haiphong also weighed in on this issue.

Sunday, April 02, 2017

I respect Vladimir Putin for many reasons. I have defended him from the lies told by imperialist politicians and the corporate media. The war party, which is made up of democrats and republicans, wants regime change in Russia. Simply put, the crumbling empire can't sustain itself without controlling this enormous energy rich country which spans two continents. Russia has been turned into an enemy because it insists on exercising its rights as a sovereign nation. It has also stepped back into the breach and foiled America's regime change plot in Syria. That is one of the reasons it is being condemned daily and blamed for the democratic party's self-inflicted wounds.

Having said all of that, I must say that I was extremely disappointed to read Putin's recent remarks on climate change. In the past he did acknowledge that humans were impacting the climate and correctly called the situation a dangerous crisis. But a few days ago he said that climate change was irreversible and besides not caused by humans and what the hell, a melting arctic will give Russia new economic opportunities.

Of course human CO2 production is responsible for dead coral reefs and blistering heat and methane gas bubbles threatening to explode in Russia itself. But it is also important to point out that the world has reached this point because other world leaders feel as Putin does. They may talk a good game but every so-called climate agreement results in sleight of hand and more global warming.

At Black Agenda Report we have been writing about this hypocrisy for a long time. See here, here and here too. Barack Obama marketed himself as an environmentalist, but he made sure that the Copenhagen and Paris agreements gave rich nations the right to keep spewing fossil fuels. What good is a climate change agreement that allows temperatures to keep rising? The U.S., Russia, Europe, China and India have all managed to give the appearance of lowering CO2 emissions when they have done just the opposite.

I call Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau the Obama Clone because he is also a photogenic errand boy for the 1%. Under Trudeau Canada has failed to meet even the weak emissions reductions targets set by his conservative predecessor. And yes, when Trump announced he was going ahead with the Keystone XL pipeline, the phony progressive Trudeau showed his true colors and called it a good thing.

We may defend or condemn world leaders for particular reasons but in the end few of them make decisions based on the interests of humanity. Those who do are the true revolutionaries.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

I have said many times that I don't believe the allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Democrats are flogging this horse in order to make the case for a 21st century cold war and to divert attention from their electoral failures.

I did not realize that Nigel Farage met with Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy in London a few weeks ago. An observant reader pointed this out to me. I have connected my own dots and concluded that Donald Trump and or his associates hacked the Democratic National Committee. I also think they did it without any help from Russia. That is the subject of my Black Agenda Report column which you can read here and my weekly convo with Don DeBar which you can listen to here.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

The democrats breathlessly claim that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump and that Vladimir Putin ordered this interference personally and that the alleged meddling is and I quote, "An act of war." The democratic party is in a death spiral of failure and a crisis of legitimacy. Blaming Russia kills two birds with one stone. They continue their ratcheting up of the 21st century cold war and distract attention from their pathetic state.

But I argue that even if this account is accurate, and I doubt it, the Russian government only did what the Clinton administration carried out in 1996. In that year a group of political consultants affiliated with Clinton fixer Dick Morris worked to help Boris Yeltsin be re-elected. Yeltsin's poll numbers were well behind those of his communist party rival. The American helpers went to Moscow and manipulated the process to keep Yeltsin and the oligarchs in power. Act of war? Well, its a good thing the Russians didn't feel that way. I dissected this sorry episode in my column in the March 15th issue of Black Agenda Report. I also discussed it with my Don DeBar in CPR News that week.

This week I analyzed the troubling prospect of Hillary Clinton's refusal to disappear. She is back in campaign mode. It is obvious that she must be smacked down but she still runs the democratic party and no one seems willing to hammer a stake into her heart. Hillary Returns is my column and I discussed it with Don DeBar here.

I don't believe that the Russian government interfered in the election. But the story won't die because the corporate media, and democrats and republicans in the war party won't let it. Two birds are killed with this stone. The imperialists get to make the case for hegemony by making Russians out to be the villains and democrats distract their passive rank and file from demanding answers about the electoral debacle.

Lynne Stewart passed away this evening at the age of 77. She was an indefatigable defender of human rights, a superior trial attorney who fought for clients others wouldn't defend. So the government put her in jail at the age of 70 after she was diagnosed with cancer.

She was granted compassionate release on December 31, 2013. I joined with hundreds of others to welcome her home at Laguardia airport the next day. Ralph Poynter, her devoted husband, worked tirelessly on her release.

Today I was interviewed on Radio Sputnik. I talked about my last Black Agenda Report column, Liberals Expose Themselves. I explain why resisting the democrats is as important as resisting Trump. After all their corruption, arrogance and incompetence put him in office. This is a good use of eight minutes of your time.

Friday, March 03, 2017

Liberals love the status quo more than they love anything else. What little ideology they have is love for the bourgeoisie and they support democratic politicians based on imagery more than principles. They don't want to fight the corrupt system that democratic politicians depend on and support. They can love war if a democratic president loves war, and they hate the left more than they hate the right.

I analyzed this issue in my Black Agenda Report column, Liberals Expose Themselves and then discussed it with Don DeBar. Listen to our conversation here. The so-called resistance to Trump is a joke, because the resistance should have started with the democratic party, the biggest obstacle to progressive change in this country.

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Ever since Donald Trump ordered a travel ban against citizens of seven Muslim countries, there have been reports of heightened enforcement against undocumented immigrants and of international travelers who have a right to be in the country.

Just this weekend two stories received media attention. An Australian writer named Mem Fox was detained for two hours in Los Angeles despite having a valid visa. A French academic named Henry Rousso was detained for ten hours in Houston and was on the verge of being deported. Only swift action from American colleagues allowed him entry. There will be more and more stories like these as the Trump administration unleashes an attack on immigrants. But we can't forget that these incidents aren't new.

In 2010 I wrote about Customs and Border Patrol agents patrolling cities and towns in upstate New York for my Black Agenda Report column. They have authority to act anywhere within 100 miles of the border. Speaking of borders, the U.S./Canadian border appears to be particularly troublesome. A Muslim American writer and her family were detained there in 2013 after returning from a wedding. All were citizens, all had valid passports. But Muslims, so who cares? That same year a white Dutchman was refused entry because he had visited Muslim nations and packed a raincoat. (They actually asked him about the raincoat.)

A very troubling story emerged several days ago when passengers on a Delta airlines flight from San Francisco to New York were required to present I.D. upon disembarking from their plane. CPB claimed that a person scheduled for deportation might have been on the flight, but that raises many questions. Doesn't the airline know who is onboard? Isn't there a manifest? I wonder if such a person even existed or if this is a new way to introduce constant surveillance over our lives.

Customs and Border Patrol(CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) now feel that "the shackles have been taken off" as the Trump administration makes clear that all undocumented people are in effect scheduled for deportation. The Obama administration deported more people, at least 2.5 million than any other president. Asylum seekers from African countries were given special and unwanted attention as their claims were routinely denied.

Donald Trump won the presidency in large part because he vowed to build a wall on the Mexican border. The CPB and ICE are obviously anxious to go about the business of targeting people for removal and like all law enforcement they have no concerns for civil liberties. In fact, we have no rights at all at airport customs. It is treated as a legal no mans land and unless a targeted person has outside help like Henry Rousso, he or she is doomed to face whatever treatment the CBP wants to mete out.

The situation will be worse for legal and undocumented immigrants and for international travelers too. But this situation did not spring fully formed from Donald Trump's head. There is a long history of fascistic behaviors at these police agencies and no one was ever safe from them. All an air traveler need do is claim a feeling of unease near a Muslim fellow traveler and voila... The Muslim is kicked off the plane. And yes this happened before Trump. Continuity is the watch word on this and every other Trump policy.

The media aren't Trump's friends but they don't serve our interests either. Not with the Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos also being a CIA contractor. Such is the contradiction of our age. Read and listen. A good use of your time.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

I was so pleased that Netfa Freeman asked me to appear on his program Voices with Vision on WPFW. We discussed the sham in Amnesty International and its ilk as they make the case for American aggression abroad. You can listen to us right here.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are at it again. At the moment when the United States gamble for Syrian regime change has failed, they rear their ugly heads to support the imperialists with spurious charges of human rights abuses. The U.S. and their head choppers escape their analysis.

My Black Agenda Report column, Human Rights Industry Protects Imperialism, dissects the latest efforts of these phony humanitarians to promote the U.S. effort to destroy sovereign nations. AI and HRW are the most prominent and the worst. They have a revolving door of staff going straight to the state department which is prima facie proof of corruption and collusion. Don DeBar and I also discussed that on his CPR News broadcast. Listen to us here.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

"There can be no resistance to Trump which includes the Democratic Party. The Democrats are the obstacle to justice at home and peace abroad."

So sayeth yours truly in the current issue of Black Agenda Report. In my column Resist Trump, Resist the Democrats, I explain why the much hyped call for resistance doesn't really amount to much. Very few of the resisters want to acknowledge the degree of continuity from Obama to Trump, just as there has always been from one presidency to another. Listen to my CPR News conversation with Don DeBar here.

I appeared on Presstv to discuss the recent immigration raids and deportations. I see more continuity with Obama administration policy than difference. Lest we forget, Obama deported at least 2.5 million people.

Saturday, February 04, 2017

Donald Trump's victory has revealed who is real, who is fake and who is a traitor. The democrats are lying traitors, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

In the January 25th issue of Black Agenda Report I wrote Democrats Attack Trump from the Right, namely by pursuing the discredited meme of Russian influence. It is especially sad to see members of the Congressional Black Caucus eagerly following a McCarthyite tactic and praise the intelligence agencies which have done so much damage to black people. Listen to my conversation with Don DeBar here.

This week I wrote Trump is the Less Effective Evil. At Black Agenda Report we always said that Barack Obama was not the lesser of two evils. He was just more effective at quieting democratic protest against policies that are otherwise anathema to liberals. Trump's travel ban on citizens of seven majority Muslim nations (Sudan, Syria, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen) has elicited outrage and massive protest. That is all to the good, but Obama's bombing and killing people in these same nations did not spark the resistance it should have. Don and I talked about this too. Listen up right here.

Sunday, January 22, 2017

I was invited to join the green party's Inaugurate the Resistance program presented by the Green News Network. Inaugurate the Resistance featured a series of speeches and interviews with green party leaders and activists such as Jill Stein, Ajamu Baraka, David Cobb, Meleizia Figueroa, George Paz Martin, George Friday, Kevin Zeese, Kali Akuno, Darryl Moch, Lydia Caramillo, Julia Varughese, Gloria Mattera, Jerome Scott, Howie Hawkins, Brian Jones, Ursula Rozum, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Patrice Cullors, Muhammad Malik, Melina Abdullah, and Dr. Jack Rasmus in just the first three hours. There was another three hour segment evening program featuring Chris Hedges, Kshama Sawant, Tim Canova and Chase Iron Eyes.

It is all great binge watching. You can see my panel with David Cobb, George Martin and Meleiza Figueroa starting at 1 hour 53 minutes on the youtube video above. We discussed resisting white supremacy and fighting for racist justice. The first step in doing any of those things is to reject the democrat party, which is where movements go to die.

I'm very grateful to have had this opportunity. You can catch all of this on Jill Stein's facebook page too.

I was in Washington on January 20th with thousands of others protesting on the day of Donald Trump's inauguration. I was there along with my fellow United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) administrative committee members Joe Lombardo, Sara Flounders, Phil Wilayto and Abayomi Azikiwe at the J20 Resist rally and march. It is hard to speak for only two minutes, but I was trying to say that we must protest the democrats too. Their corruption and hubris made Donald Trump the president. Their history of presidential administrations is a litany of betrayal; from Clinton's ending the right to public assistance to Obama continuing endless war and making austerity deals with republicans.

We must resist the democrats as much as we must resist the republicans. The democrats are the problem and they hate the left more than they hate the republicans they use to keep us from demanding change. No matter. I dumped them. I joined the green party.

"I was beaten bloody by police officers. But I never hated them. I said, 'Thank you for your service.' "Congressman John Lewis

I certainly hope that the phrase "civil rights icon" is soon retired once and for all. This flowery moniker has become the property of Georgia congressman John Lewis. Lewis was among the young people who fought against America's apartheid in the jim crow south in the early 1960s. He did risk his safety and his very life on the freedom rides and when he was beaten by police while crossing the Edmund Pettus bridge in the march from Selma to Montgomery. He spoke at the 1963 March on Washington and was the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

His bonafides are solid but do they give him a lifetime dispensation from critique? I answered in the negative in my Black Agenda Report column, No Tears for John Lewis. Lewis has been a congressman for nearly 30 years and he is little more than a democratic party hack. Like the rest of the Congressional Black Caucus he belittled and lied about Bernie Sanders in the effort to defeat him and make Hillary Clinton the democratic party nominee. He dismissed Sanders history in the movement and he sneered at his signature plan to make college education free and end the toll of student indebtedness.

Of course anyone called an icon can get away with uttering nonsense. Lewis has joined the rest of the black misleaders in claiming that the Russian government interfered with the presidential election. Lewis said that this unproven assertion alone rendered Donald Trump illegitimate as president. Mind you he didn't say that losing the popular vote made him illegitimate. Instead the democratic party trope and excuse for ignominious failure makes the case for legitimacy.

Trump was too stupid to leave the comment alone or to be gracious. He lashed out at Lewis in typical Trumpian style and claimed the congressman's district was "crime infested." The liberal hand wringers had a field day turning the mediocre representative into a perpetual hero. It was all to much for me and so I had to write about it. And then of course I talked to Don DeBar about it on CPR News and we had a great conversation as we do every week.

It will be a long four years if every target of a Trump tweet is elevated to sainthood.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Yesterday I was among the speakers at the Black is Back Coalition (BIBC) rally for self-determination in Washington DC. It was a great event with informative speakers such as Omali Yeshitela, Glen Ford, Nellie Bailey, Kamm Howard, Diop Olugbala, Yeshide Orunmila, Zaki Baruti, Khalid Raheem, Lisa Davis and performances by M1 of Dead Prez and Lucy Murphy.

Watch this video if you want to know why Donald Trump won or what we must do in response to fight him and the democrats. Of course you don't have to sit down for five hours. Take your time. My remarks start at about one hour and ten minutes into the program.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Someone said that Pennsylvania can be described as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama in between. On a recent road trip from New York to Ohio I drove through the Alabama portion of the state. It is not a comfortable place for a black person.

I was with one of my sisters and we stopped for gas and for dinner. A sign outside of the restaurant said, "Hunt safely." I was ready to walk out if I felt uncomfortable but there were two black people dining and I relaxed somewhat.

The waitresses were friendly, one customer was a little too friendly and wouldn't go away. We talked about the Pittsburgh Steelers of course. The other customers wore camouflage jackets and shirts, one had a cap which read Deer Hunter. I would say that half of the people I encountered were missing teeth. There were military t-shirts on sale and caps that read Vietnam Veteran and Purple Heart Veteran. The photo above shows a mural on the wall of the restaurant.

I looked online and as I assumed this county voted for Donald Trump overwhelmingly. They gave him 70% of their votes. Mitt Romney got a mere 55% of votes in 2012.

I admit that I remembered the people I met in this town and elsewhere in Pennsylvania who had missing teeth. That is quite simply a sign of poverty. It is tempting to look down on poor, white republican voters and ask why they vote "against their own interests." But I don't know how they see their interests.

Maybe they just want white people in office who assert their whiteness. Maybe they know that voting for democrats won't get them out of poverty. Maybe they don't see themselves as being poor. I suspect these are all factors but I'm just guessing.

When I think back about some of the people I voted for I just cringe. Mario Cuomo was a democratic governor of New York and he constantly bragged about building prisons but I voted for him. Bill Clinton ended the right to public assistance and put more black people in prison and I voted for him when he ran for reelection. I don't vote for anyone like them anymore but I have to admit I spent most of my life voting against my own interests too.

On Saturday, January 14th I will be among those speaking at the Black is Back Coalition rally in Washington DC. The event will be held at Howard University's Blackburn Center. In November we approved a 19-point agenda for black self determination at that same venue.

Black Agenda Report is a founding member of the Black is Back Coalition and I look forward to every opportunity I have to interact with our friends and comrades. Glen Ford, Omali Yeshitela, Charles Barron, M1, Kamm Howard, Nellie Bailey, Marsha Coleman Adebayo, Gazi Kodzo and others are among the speakers.

Thursday, January 05, 2017

Don DeBar and I start the new year off right. We talked about my latest Black Agenda Report column, Obama's Propaganda Gift to Trump. Barack Obama used the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to establish a Global Engagement Center, an official propaganda arm of the U.S. government. There is no pretense of democracy in this country. Nor is there any disagreement between the two parties when an opportunity presents itself to stifle dissent and empower neo-liberal and imperial schemes. Please read my column and listen to Don and me here.

I knew this was coming. The wave of Russophobia among the elites and the corporate media knows no bounds. I was wondering when this history would be resurrected.

It is well documented that Red Army soldiers were responsible for thousands of sexual assaults as they invaded Germany in 1945. I'm not disputing this fact and I'm certainly not defending it. But I find it interesting what the American media choose to report and when they choose to report it.

Enslaved black women were raped routinely throughout the United States, Caribbean, Central America and South America over the more than 200 year history of slavery. How many indigenous women were raped by conquistadores and pilgrims? I'm sure that number is equally enormous.

Let's look at America's 21st century gulag, the mass incarceration system. Men and women are routinely sexually assaulted and more often by prison personnel than by other inmates. I could go on but I find it odd that when Americans want to make a case against someone they immediately talk about rape, as long as it happened somewhere else on the planet.

Frum is a confirmed neo-conservative and senior editor of the Atlantic. Like all members of the Washington elite and the war party he is a die hard Russophobe. It is no wonder that he resurrects this book published in 2002.

Why now? That should always be the question. The tweet not only highlights a story I doubt Frum is really interested in but has the value of mocking the Russian effort in Syria. That is my issue with this subject being raised now. Every Russian move is denounced and dismissed, lies are told as truth and crimes of 70 years ago are suddenly found worthy of attention. If Russia was America's friend this history would be kept hidden. But Putin is successfully pushing back against U.S. hegemony and that is why he has been declared an enemy. Every bad chapter of his nation's history will suddenly get renewed attention.

Making fun of Putin for riding shirtless on a horse didn't keep him from stopping the regime change plot in Syria. Neither did falsely claiming that he interfered in the presidential election. So now the corporate media will suddenly tell us about rapes in Berlin in 1945. That wouldn't bother me if I thought the retelling came from any honest concern about the past or about brutality committed against women.

The British, French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Belgians and Germans committed crimes against humanity all over the world. But those crimes are swept under the rug because they were committed against black and brown and yellow people.

Margaret Kimberley

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